Day 3 of the Osaka 2007 World Track Championships, would see the semi-finals of the Women's SteepleChase, the Men's 1500m and the Men's 10000m Final.

Women's 3000m SteepleChase Final :
When Russia's Gulnara Samitova-Galkina shot into the front at the gun, it looked as though she was an athlete on a mission. At first, no athlete responded, only for Kenya's Eunice Jepkorir to take up the challenge. Yekaterina Volkova bide her time with the leader going through the 1k in 3.00.35.

Then Galkina came under pressure and dropped the tempo allowing the Kenyan to take the lead, this sparked Volkova to bridge the gap. From 1 to 2k was a 3.05.11 kilometer (6:05.46). Tatyana Petrova followed her compatriot to overhaul Jepkorir before Volkova bolted to the front leaving the 2 behind her to fight for Silver. With 600m left, Petrova finally took up the running for Gold. At first she closed the gap on the leader quickly opening a gap on 3rd place. However with 200m to go there was still too much for her to do. Volkova raised her arms in victory coming into the final straight winning in a time of 9:06.57 (final kilometer 3:01.11) One wonders if it was a Russian sacrifice to blunt the attack of the semi-final winner, Cristina Casandra of Romania, or whether it was simply poor tactics in this the 2nd running of the Women's SteepleChase in a World Championship. | results |

Men's 1500m semi-finals :
The Men's 1500 semi-finals were an absolute bun fight with mistakes by the dozen being made by athletes running to secure a place in Wednesday's Final.

In 2005, France's Mehdi Baala did not make it to the final and on today's showing he should certainly not be lining up on Wednesday. His race and tactics were idiotic to say the least and maybe a lobotomy would probably be an able solution?

Baala, you can't simply run through an athlete because you decide you want to go. I guess Parisians must drive in a similar manner? How this athlete was not disqualified is baffling to say the least?

Semi1. This was run at a ridiculously slow pace before the tall Kenyan youngster, Asbel Kiprop, went to the front in an attempt to make it a running contest. Baala was happy to to sit at the rear of the field before moving into contention with 700m to go (800/2:07.87). The Spaniard, Juan Carlos Higuero, took up the running and the last 400m began to resemble a cavalry charge. Baala had got himself trapped on the inside and made a stupid attempt to go through on the inside on the back stretch, almost stumbling. Then in the final straight Baala physically destroyed the field by attempting to barge through athletes ahead of him, bringing 2 athletes with this absurd move. The wise head of USA's Bernard Lagat steered clear of all danger and came through to take the semi unchallenged. While the carnage in his rear was more fitting for American football.

Time-to-Run is not one to slate athletes easily, however this was the most pathetic piece of running by an athlete with so much experience and he deserved a DQ, pink shoes and all.

Update: After examining the video of the race the Jury of Appeal decided to disqualify French athlete Mehdi BAALA (bib number 556) under rule 163.2. Jury of Appeal Decision - Men's 1500m Semi-Final 1 - UPDATED 28 Aug - French appeal rejected.

Semi2. After the train smash of race 1 you would have thought that they would have tried to avoid a duplicate semi. Before the start, USA's Allan Webb looked psyched, as though he was ready to shoot out a quick race. However, he sat at the rear of the field with Bahrain's Belal Mansoor Ali leading the field through the first stanza before Spain's Arturo Casado took the field through 400 in 57.95. Then pulled a slight handbrake up to go through the next lap in just under 64 for an 800m spit of 2:01.73. Through all this Webb simply sat at the back of the field.

1200m passed in 3:02.42, now only 1 second faster than semi 1 at the same point after being almost 6 seconds faster at 800.

Then Rashid Ramzi shot out over the last 100m to provide me with some humble pie, looking extremely competent and ready for the final.

As for Webb, what on earth he was trying to do only he knows. Comment: Sorry Allan, but you cannot expect to dominate the World's best after only a handful of races where you have shown you can run fast. That was the wrong tactic and fortunately you have the final to put things right, it so easily could have been different.

The final is turning into an event of interest and now Ramzi must rank as favourite, however not in this quarter, as his semi was won in 3:40.53. | results | Prediction - winner in 3.33

Men's 1000m Final :
The 10000m had Eritrea's World XCountry Champion, Zersenay Tadesse, doing the duty for the bulk of the race. The pace soon settled into a 65/66sec tempo per lap pace. The conditions were not too different to Mombasa however on this occasion the result would be. Only on one occasion did an Ethiopian lead during the first eight kilometers and this was at teh 2k mark when Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam took the field through 2k in 5:27.32.

Thereafter the laps were clicked off in metronomic fashion with the Qatar athletes not justifying their price tag and dropping out for an early shower.

5k was covered in 13:42.98 which is a 27:30 pace

Once 8k was reached there was only a handful of athletes in contention and the big name, that of Kenenisa Bekele, was looking confortable. His compatriot and 2005 Silver medalist, Sileshi Sihine, was also present.

With 3 laps to go the 2005 Bronze medalist, Kenyan Martin Irungu Mathathi, surged to the front. This was to be the undoing of Tadesse who fell away rapidly eventually finishing some 9 seconds off of a medal position. The smooth running Mathathi had dropped a 61 second lap for good measure and of the 3 athletes left in contention, Bekele looked to be the most troubled.

Was this to be Mombasa all over? KB needed to snap out of his daze with Sihine following the Kenyan the two made a small gap on Bekele. He did not look comfortable and if it were any other athlete he would be beaten however this champion has a killer kick in reserve. Sihine was the first to kick and down the backstraight Mathathi was buried with Sihine edging ahead of Bekele. KB was fighting with all his might to expel the ghosts of doubt still lingering within his mind and then it happened. His head kicked in and he floated past Sihine and the weight lifted from his young troubled shoulders.

The last 1k was 2:30. Bekele cantered across the line in 27:05.90 with Sihine demoralised in 2nd with 27:09.03. This was far closer than the time suggests and during the race, he certainly did not look capable of doubling however with the enormous pressure removed from his shoulders he could risk another 5000 or should he?

For Sihine, he ran a stormer and sadly the greatness of this athlete continues to be overshadowed by the brilliance of Bekele.

The USA's Mebrahtom Keflezighi ran an aggressive race and can feel happy with his 7th place however his compatriots Dathan Ritzenhein and Galen Rupp gave no indication that they were ready to challenge the elite in their event. Though they finished 9th and 11th, they were truly never in the race and may need to have a rethink of their race strategy for a Championship or simply follow Abdi's example.

Good to see Bekele on his way back but maybe not good for his opponents who had hoped to find a weakness in his armour | results |